Several dozen journalists took to the streets of Saint Petersburg to demand the release of Denis Sinyakov, detained on piracy charges along with the crew of a Greenpeace ship after an Arctic oil drilling protest.

During the protest in Russia's second city, blindfolded photographers and other journalists held placards reading: "Who is next?" and "Photographer is not a pirate."

"We would like to show that we support our colleague," Alexander Koryakov, a photo editor with Kommersant broadsheet and one of the protest rally's organisers, told AFP.

"Unlike in the West where society comes up in support of journalists, in our country there is no one to defend journalists."

He put the turnout at some 60 people.

A former staff photographer for AFP and Reuters, Sinyakov was covering the Greenpeace protest for a Russian online site.

Sinyakov, along with the 29 crew members of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise icebreaker, has been detained on piracy charges after several activists tried to scale a state oil rig last month.

The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. The group have been placed in pre-trial detention until late November.

Investigators later added that "narcotic substances" had been found on the ship and they would be laying additional charges. Greenpeace denies this claim.

A court last week turned down the bail pleas of Sinyakov and the others.

The Kremlin's right council, an advisory body, criticised the charges brought against Sinyakov as "pressure on the media".

President Vladimir Putin has said the activists were "not pirates" but his spokesman later said the president had expressed his personal opinion.

A Greenpeace lawyer said their colleagues had to endure "inhuman conditions" while on remand in jails in Murmansk and Apatity nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,240) miles north of Moscow.

Detained Swiss Greenpeace activist defiant over Russia protest
Geneva (AFP) Oct 13, 2013 - A Swiss Greenpeace activist in custody in Russia for scaling an oil rig to protest Arctic drilling is unbowed, saying in a letter published Sunday that Moscow's reaction showed the need for the stunt.

"The aggressive and unjust behaviour of the Russian government and of Gazprom shows how important it is that decisions on the Arctic and its future be taken by the global community," Marco Weber said in the letter published by Swiss newspapers Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche.

"On September 18, I faced danger and the risk of imprisonment because I'm convinced that we have the power to bring change," Weber wrote on October 8 from his jail cell in the northern Russian city of Murmansk.

Weber is one of 30 crew members from Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship who were arrested after their direct action protest at the oil rig last month.

The activists, who hail from 18 countries, have been placed in pre-trial detention for two months and charged with piracy, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 15 years.

The environmental campaigners have rejected Moscow's claims, and accuse Russian authorities of having seized the Greenpeace ship illegally in international waters.

Weber is a member and coach of the Swiss Greenpeace climbing team known for scaling protest sites to hang banners, and also works as a carpenter.

In his letter, he said he was being held alone in a cell, and had little or no contact with the outside world, apart from weekly visits by his lawyer and the Swiss consul.

"I have neither books, nor newspapers, nor television, nor anyone to speak to. I'm also isolated during the daily walk in the prison yard," he said.